TOPICS OF TUE DAY.
THE MINISTERIAL ASPECT OF THE REFORM QUESTION.
THE Reform Bill passed id the first session of the new Parliament must be the Bill of the House of Cemmons ; and last week we observed that the settlement of the measure waif really a question superior to party. If the present Ministry could but see its own opportunity, it would perceive that with the necessary tact it might close the question this year. The recent debate indicates the kind of Bill which the whole House would accept as a basis for discussion. When the late Bill was first proposed, we saw in its positive enactments enough to suggest the hope that it would be the basis of the Reform Bill finally destined to pass into law, and the list we gave of its enfranchising clauses justified the hope. But two novelties caused the failure of the measure,—the clause disfranchising the forty-shilling freeholders, and the iden- tity of suffrage introduced as a principle. Iti, now pretty clear that had the Government omitted this disfranchisino-° clause, and 'simply lowering the county occupation franchise to ten pounds, had refrained from asserting identity of franchise as a "principle," the Bill would have been read a second time. Whatever may be said in the abstract to recommend identity of franchise, as a Con- servative device for resisting indiscriminate reduction of the borough franchise' and whatever may be said of the abstract equity of making borough freeholders vote for boroughs only, it is dear that the House of Commons isnot in the mood to discuss the question in any mode so relined or -so severed from the direct progress of our constitution. In its power of' dealing with public questions the House can, like its constituents, only grasp familiar ideas, and those who lead it should present their plans in the old shape. Instead of that Mr. Disraeli- " Too deep for his hearers, still went on refining,
And thought of convincing while they --
thought of those short and common hustings cries which involve no thought and are politics made easy for the masses. That fault has now to be redeemed ; and the Ministry can make another op- portunity.
In the first place the Ministry might -at once announce that they will introduce a Reform Bill immediately after the as- sembling of the new Parliament. This promise would -tend to satisfy men's minds with a pledge that 'we should.-see the -end of the question this year. Every one admits that the present-Minis- ters are in an excellent position to settle the question ; they com- mand a compact united party in the Commons, and a majority in the Lords. The announcement of a new Bill might disappoint those who are simply looking out for a change of Ministry, but it would certainly gratify the country. A settlement- of the ques- tion is wanted this year ; and if the actual Ministers do not undertake it, both the Bill and the Government will be taken out of their hands. It may be said that with the chance of a war, the promise of a Bill would be rash ; but unless the war involves us immediately, we could soon complete our discussion, and at the worst if we found ourselves in the midstof a great war, the House would deal with the whole subject according to the circumstances of the day.
Should. the Government have, the judgment and courage to adopt this course,' what kind of -Bill might be introduced by them ? It is not very difficult to indicate the measure that would be read a second time. It should be so framed as to allow a fair field for the discussion of the whole question. There are evidently great differences of opinion amongst leading men of all sides on almost every point, and no Bill will be a fair field for discussion, unless it admit amendments and alterations of each clause --without-af- fecting the vitality of other clauses, -or of the whole Bill. In fact, the Bill should not be a "comprehensive measure," and it -should not be based on any novel principle. The British Constitution itself, (which we are now. amending,) is not constructed on a comprehensive a priori design ; it is a patchwork erection, built bit by bit, altered here, extended there, as time and occasion called. It has leading principles, but they were worked out in action, before they were adopted as "institutions";- it is an aggregateof practices and experiences—recorded and unrecorded. We cannot do better than continue the old principles, amending only the practices. The new Reform Bill should therefore be simply a series of clauses re- lating to the representation of the people, and brought into one act for convenience of discussion. The following might be the main clauses-
1. County franchise reduced to ten-pound *year occupation of lands or houses with, in the case of lauds, the condition of a house worth at least half that amount.
2. Borough franchise reduced to six-pound a year rating ; the bounda-
• ries of boroughs to be enlarged so as to include all who properly have local interests in the borough.
' 3. Professional franchises, as in the late Reform Bill.
-4. Savings-bank franchises reduced from 601. as in the late Bill to a condition that the deposits of the voter were equivalent to 201. in four • years ; that during the last four years he lead been an habitual de- positor—that is, having had at least Si. during each year. This would allow for the withdrawals and renewed deposits natural to the artisan class ; would be a better test of fitness for the franchise than 60/. at the time of voting, for the habitual depositor is the really saving artisan ; and would prevent the manufacture of votes. 6. Lodger franchise as in the late Bill.
• 6. Voting papers, not sent by post, but collected by an official in pre- sence of two householders, one nominated by each candidate : the voting paper not to be filled up or signed except in the presence ot the three. Each voter to have the option of voting in this way at his own house, or of giving in his vote at the polling-booth.
7. New seats to be given to Burnley, Birkenhead, Westbromwich, Hartlepool, Staleybridge, Croydon, Gravesend, London University, the Queen's Colleges, Ireland, and the Scottish Universities. Four of the new seats are supplied by the abolition of Sudbury and St. Albans ; the rest to be provided by an addition to the number of Members of the House.
This plan of a Reform Bill is not put forward as entirely un- objectionable, nor even as coining nearest to the Reform Bill that will finally pass into law ; but it would have the advantage of opening a fair field for discussion. It has no penal provisions. It disfranchises no class, no person, no place ; and thus leaves the House free to apply in after times disfranchisement or disqua- lification to classes or localities which show themselves unworthy of the franchise. In its enfranchisement it is guided by the con- sideration of giving new members to the new and distinct inte- rests which have grown up since the Reform Bill. It has seven distinct propositions none of which depend on the others : each may be passed or rejected separately. A favourite folly of some statesmen is to propose a large measure where one clause which they are obliged to insert is cunningly neutralized by another which they hope to pass ; this above all things should be avoided in a Reform Bill. Each proposal should be simple and easily un- derstood by itself. To expect that general principles can be dis- cussed in that unselect Committee the House of Commons is to ex- pect too much. The first attempt of Ministers has secured three main points for any new Bill-1. A ten-pound county franchise ; 2. An exten- sion and elevation of the franchise (to lodgers and professional men,) as a correlative of any lowering of the occupation fran- chise; and 3. The retention of the small boroughs as not unuse- ful constituencies. By omitting in their new Bill four unpopular parts of the old Bill-1. Identity of franchise ; 2. Disfranchise- ment of borough freeholders ; 3. Non-resident voters for bo- roughs; and 4. Disfranchisement of dockyard voters, they might hope to carry many of the old clauses in the Bill we have indi- cated—a measure which would be the offspring of no party, but, in fact, the Bill of the whole 'House of Commons.
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